Allotment system
The allotment system was a federal policy implemented in the United States between 1887 and 1934 aimed at assimilating Indigenous Americans into mainstream society by transforming them into small farmers. This policy involved dividing tribal lands among individual Indigenous Americans, with the intent of detribalizing them and promoting agricultural development. The General Allotment Act, or Dawes Severalty Act, was enacted in 1887, granting the president the authority to allot reservation lands to individual members of tribes, often leading to significant loss of land for Indigenous communities. Although the policy was rooted in the belief that assimilation would prevent Indigenous extinction, it resulted in a drastic reduction of land controlled by Indigenous peoples, shrinking from about 138 million acres to 52 million acres by 1934.
Many Indigenous individuals were unaccustomed to farming, and the land allotted was frequently inadequate for sustaining families. Additionally, external pressures from non-Indigenous settlers often led to the leasing or sale of these lands through intimidation and manipulation. The consequences of the allotment system were profound, weakening tribal cultures and generating widespread poverty among Indigenous populations. By the late 1920s, growing concerns about the effectiveness of the allotment policy culminated in the Meriam Report, which highlighted the detrimental impacts of this approach. In response, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was enacted, halting the allotment process and allowing for the reorganization of tribal governments.
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Allotment system
SIGNIFICANCE: The allotment system, meant to assimilate Indigenous Americans by making them small farmers, instead led to a massive loss of land for Indigenous people.
Allotment—the division of tribal lands among individual Indigenous Americans—became the dominant theme in federal Indigenous policy between 1887 and 1934. During the 1880s, many White people who regarded themselves as "Friends of the Indian" came to believe that Indigenous people could be saved from extinction only by assimilation into American society. Tribal loyalties and cultures were seen as barriers to this end. Reformers hoped that by carving up reservations and making Indigenous people small farmers, they could effectively detribalize and assimilate them into American culture. This policy also attracted support from those who wanted to open up tribal lands for settlement or exploitation. There were precedents for this policy. In the first half of the nineteenth century, several eastern states had broken up state-recognized reservations by dividing land among tribal members, and a number of the removal treaties of the 1830s made provision for allotments to individual Indigenous Americans who wished to remain east of the Mississippi.
In 1887, Congress enacted the General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Severalty Act (for Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, one of its proponents). The act gave the president authority to allot reservation lands in “severalty” (to individual Indigenous Americans). As a general rule, heads of families would receive 160 acres, while single Indigenous people received less. Title to the allotments would be held in trust by the government for twenty-five years to enable allottees to acquire the necessary farming skills, and the land could not be sold during the trust period. Once a Indigenous American took up an allotment, he became an American citizen. Land not required for distribution could be sold off or opened to White settlement, with the proceeds intended to support assimilationist policies. Planners believed that the Indigenous people, freed from tribal domination, would develop as small farmers and become part of mainstream American society. The Five Civilized Tribes of Indian TerritoryCherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nationsalong with a few others were originally exempted from the act, but in the 1890s, Congress established a commission headed by Senator Dawes to negotiate allotment and thus the abolition of their tribal governments.
The actual process of allotment was complex and went on for more than forty years. Along the way, Congress made several modifications: In 1900 the leasing of allotments before the end of the trust period was allowed; in 1902, heirs of allottees were permitted to sell their lands with the permission of the secretary of the interior; and in 1906 the Burke Act delayed citizenship until the end of the trust period.
The system did not work as intended. Many Indigenous people came from nonagricultural tribal backgrounds and were reluctant to become farmers. Others found their allotments too small to support a family or of little agricultural value. Whites often encouraged Indigenous people to lease or sell their lands, sometimes resorting to intimidation or outright fraud.
The foremost result of the allotment policy was a drastic reduction in the amount of land controlled by Indigenous Americans, from 138 million acres in 1887 to 52 million acres when the policy ceased in 1934. Of the amount lost, 60 million acres had been declared “excess land” and disposed of by the government to non-Indigenous people. By 1934, two-thirds of Indigenous Americans were either landless or without enough land to provide subsistence. The policy weakened tribal cultures and fostered the growth of a large bureaucracy in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
By the late 1920s, doubts about the allotment system were growing. An investigation led by Lewis Meriam shocked many when its findings were published in 1928 as The Problem of Indian Administration (better known as the Meriam Report). The report detailed dismal conditions and poverty among Indigenous Americans and identified the allotment system as the major source of Indigenous problems. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act stopped the process of allotment and allowed the reorganization of tribal governments.
Bibliography
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